Emergency dispatchers can suffer from post traumatic stress

SOMERSET — Events such as the March 14 collision between a tractor-trailer and a Turkeyfoot school bus can cause stress for emergency dispatchers.

A study published in the March issue of the Journal of Traumatic Stress reports that even though emergency dispatchers didn’t know the victims or were there when the event happened, they can still experience symptoms that lead to psychological disorders.

“Post-traumatic psychological disorders are usually associated with front line emergency workers, such as police officers, firefighters or combat veterans,” study author Dr. Michelle Lilly, an assistant professor of psychology from Northern Illinois University in Dekalb, said in a written statement.

“Usually research considers links between disorders and how much emotional distress is experienced on the scene of a traumatic event. However, this is the first study on emergency dispatchers who experience the trauma indirectly.”

Dave Fox, Somerset County 911 coordinator, said he can tell the difference between the newer dispatchers and those with years of experience.

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“The older ones don’t get as rattled and things don’t bother them as much,” he said. “Incidents involving children are the worst.”

Three dispatchers were working the day of the school bus collision, but three more were in the building in a training session. Those who were dispatching were able to call for help from the other three. In addition to all the ambulances, fire departments and police sent to the scene, six medical helicopters were dispatched. Fox said that is the most medical helicopters for any one incident in the county.

“People may not realize that that accident wasn’t the only thing happening at that time,” Fox said. “There was a motorcycle accident on the Meyersdale Bypass of Route 219, a pedestrian accident in the northern part of the county and multiple medical calls. We have five nursing homes in the county and have many calls to them.”

Fox helped in the dispatch center one day when there were multiple calls, including a man who had been run over with his own pickup truck. Fox called the man back and stayed on the line with him until help arrived.

“It doesn’t sink in until later,” he said. “The plane crash on Sept. 11 (United Flight 93) was in a remote area of Stonycreek Township. We didn’t get a lot of calls on it, and when the first responders got there and realized that there were no survivors, we knew it was a recovery. We were bothered because of what happened to the nation as a whole. We did have crisis people come in after that and talk.”

Most of the Somerset County dispatchers are also volunteer firemen or emergency medical technicians. They see injured people firsthand. Fox was a fireman at the scene of an accident involving five high school students. Three were killed, including one who was himself a fireman.

Counselors were brought in to talk to the firemen.

“We have the capability of having counselors come in for the dispatchers and when it’s a bad accident, we keep an eye on them for a day or two,” he said. “It’s not as bad in a small area. True, we are more likely to know the people, but we don’t have the volume of calls they have in cities.”

When the county’s dispatch center was in the old jail, only one dispatcher worked per shift. When it was moved to the new jail, there were two on at a time. Now the center is in the emergency management offices and there are two, three or four dispatchers working, depending on the day and time.

The researchers surveyed 171 emergency dispatchers in 24 states. The dispatchers averaged 38 years old with more than 11 years of experience. They were questioned about the types of calls they answer and the emotional distress they endured.

The unexpected injury or death of a child accounted for 16 percent of the calls dispatchers identified as their worst trauma. Nearly 13 percent of the worst calls identified were suicidal callers, 10 percent were police-officer shootings and another 10 percent involved the unexpected death of an adult. The study noted that dispatchers experienced a high level of distress following an average of 32 percent of potentially traumatic calls and 3.5 percent of the dispatchers reported symptoms severe enough to be classified as post-traumatic stress disorder.

Official guidelines about traumatic events are to be published next year.

“Our research is the first to reveal the extent of emotional distress experienced by emergency dispatchers while on duty,” Heather Pierce, a researcher, said in the published study. “The results show the need to provide these workers with prevention and intervention support as is currently provided for their front-line colleagues.”